Wig and Gown Included

He's brilliant, clever, oh so dashing
With growing paunch and bald head flashing
A man of letters, a man of learning
His sense of right it is a-burning

He
Has
Chaaarrrissma!

(Or so he thinks!)

Defending poor and huddled masses
Can he not see even with those glasses
The liars, dealers, pimps and fraudlings
The desperate things and bling-bling kings

An "accidental" killer whose
Defence illicits jury's boos
The driver who had too much beer
The picture here is very clear

(Or is it?)

A lawyer standing for the truth!
Or actor trying to raise the roof?

(Let us take a look at the evidence)

A murderer who he despises
The truth of which he well disguises
The truth is that he wants his fee
To line his pockets verily

The paedophile, a child himself
Where evidence is used with stealth
The truth has nothing to do with it
When he's defending this little shit

Bomber, rapist and armed robber
All with the coppers have had some bother
To get 'em of the hook if he can
Or else spend least time in the can

Can do, will do, it's all a game
And one that's played with absence of shame
Excuses often all too lame
Played to the house like a pantomime dame

(Wig and gown included)

Oh no it isn't, oh yes it is
The real question, m'lud, is this
Who's the genuine villain here
When truth like this is pitched so queer?

(For me, at least)
The only bar taken serious
Is the kind that gets an interval crush

The Trouble with Child Protection

In light of recent events and the trial of the killers of Peter Connolly, aka Baby P, there has been much recrimination laid at the door of social workers, and some of it is well-deserved.

Social Workers are Overworked and Underpaid
Whilst it’s true that social workers have a difficult and demanding job, too much is made of social workers being poorly paid and overworked. Social workers, even during training are paid something approaching £20k and, once qualified will earn considerably more for their 37 hour week. The current average salary in Britain is around £24k, but the majority work for less than this (often in difficult and demanding jobs), with the mean average being artificially inflated by the few who earn six and seven figure sums.

Awareness of Culture
Another defence of social workers is that many are from overseas and have little idea of what to look for in British culture. It is up to the employers to ensure that the people they employ are fit for purpose, so if this means that they need to check if someone is sufficiently culturally aware, then checks need to be implemented to ensure that this is the case prior to employment.

There Are Too Few Social Workers
To train as a social worker and be paid a handsome sum by local authority and have all tuition fees paid, the only qualifications required are GCSE English Language and Maths or the completion of an access course, and as long as those certificates can be produced they will consider any applicant for interview. It is assumed that these qualifications are required to prove that the applicant can read, write and add up. The applicants are then invited to take written tests prior to formal interview.

I have anecdotal evidence of someone who was refused an interview on the grounds that their exams weren’t recognised as being equivalent to GCSE (these being 16+ and CSE, now obsolete). This person was looking for a career change in their late thirties, worked sessionally for the local Social Services department doing group work and training social workers (taking annual leave from their highly technical job to do so) and had specialist training in counselling, developmental psychology and child therapy. When they appealed against this decision, they were told they could retake their exams or take an access course and reapply as a trainee social worker the following year. The potential applicant commented that if the local authority was like this prior to employment then they dreaded to think what they’d be like as an employer and decided to put their energies elsewhere.

The reason I relate this tale, is because it seems indicative of the idiotic levels of bureaucracy to which government agencies are prepared to go in order to fulfil requirement, rather than analysing and acting upon what is actually needed. As the saying goes, the trouble with common sense is it ain’t so common, and it certainly seems to be the case in much of local authority.

Do Once and Share
To be fair, there are some individuals in local authority who excel in their role, and have the drive and vision to change and continuously improve local services. In my experience, such people are driven by vocation and pragmatism rather than career and should be the example from which local authorities should take their lead. These people, too, are bogged down by bureaucracy, but somehow manage to have great success in their endeavours.

All local authorities are given guidelines to work to, but then rewrite them according to local need. This is all well and good up to a point, but it seems that guidelines are sometimes rewritten out of vanity rather than need. There are over 400 local authorities in England and Wales and all of them rewrite centrally dictated policy for their individual area, which is utterly ridiculous. I have a senior colleague who is fond of saying “do once and share”. Guidelines should be written by the best of the people on the ground and then disseminated across all authorities so that some measure of consistency is maintained. Local authorities could take a lot from industry by working to standard operating procedures and perhaps consider working models, such as Kaizen that focuses upon the practice of continuous improvement and is invested in by everyone in the organisation, instead of imparting policy from on high with little or no input from grassroots workers.

To go back to the success of the vocational pragmatists in local authority, these seem to be the same people who listen to their colleagues at all levels, consider their clients’ needs and take a truly multi-agency approach by seeing individuals from other organisations as their colleagues.

Solutions
Solutions to failings within local authority need to have proper consideration prior to implementation. In light of the Baby P case there have been proposals to enforce attendance at parenting courses for those with children on the At Risk register.

Haringey already run parenting courses, but the mother of Baby P (Tracey Connolly) failed to attend them. In this particular case, I believe that her attendance on such a course could have been far more damaging than her lack of attendance. From the information in the press, it seems the mother’s behaviour indicates some level of psychopathy and she would be too wrapped up in herself to have gained much from a parenting course without other interventions. The reported behaviour of the “step-father” (Steven Barker) would indicate outright sociopathy and his attendance would probably have furnished him with further tools with which to outwit the social workers by learning exactly what they wanted to hear from him as a parent.

Prison authorities have learned the hard way that sex offenders need to be assessed prior to any psychological treatment to ensure that the truly sociopathic individuals are weeded out. These characters can be very difficult to spot, as they are often charming and apparently helpful, especially if they think there is something to be gained, such as finding new and convincing ways of expressing “remorse” they don’t really feel, or new tricks in the treatment of their victims.

It’s crucial, therefore, that parents are properly assessed and not sent wholesale onto parenting courses, and that all “solutions” are properly considered before being put into place.

Other Agencies
A political favourite is the “multi-agency approach” and this is often cited as a way forward, but never seems to work in reality. The “public” have the impression that “public services” all have the same remit and the same culture, but the reality is that each organisation is separate and national organisations are usually locally driven. There is further complication in that each organisation jealously guards its own reputation, driving a wedge between the agencies.

Social Services are concerned with welfare, National Health Service with well-being, the Police with the law. All of these are commonly connected, all are seemingly national but in reality locally run, and all carry a snobbery about the other services. All carry a common negativity towards their area of expertise, i.e., the Police deal with criminals, the Health Service with the sick, Social Services with those who don’t care.

No relationship can thrive on negativity and jealousy and the focus needs to be shifted onto the positive aspect of the organisations, the common link being protection.

Good Parenting
I think about how my parents brought me up and continue, in my adulthood, to be good parents to me. They gave me freedom with boundaries, sometimes they punished me, and sometimes they let me get hurt without doing anything to stop it. It taught me that to be truly free I must know my limits, that to avoid punishment I have to understand my own culpability and have respect for myself and others, and that if I consider my actions and make my choices with care I’ll avoid pain and, that sometimes, pain can’t be avoided.

The key to this is that they were consistent and united in their approach, there for me and protected me whilst allowing me to think for myself. Now, in my forties, I’m still able to approach them for support and advice, and I bow to their greater wisdom and experience.

My parents are not perfect, they’re just people like anyone else. There have been times when they’ve got things desperately wrong, but I recognise that they’ve always done their best with the resources they’ve had at the time, and when they have got it wrong they’ve had the good grace to admit it and make reparation. I appreciate that I drew a very long straw in having them for a mum and dad.

I think the public services sector could do a lot worse than be good parents.